NEWBERRY — John Andoh, executive director and CEO of The COMET, gave the Newberry County Governmental Association an update and information on the 93X I-26 Express Route, which has been approved by the COMET board.
“It will start May of 2019, it is going to be a commuter express route. It will stop in Newberry, Little Mountain, Chapin, Irmo and connect to downtown Columbia,” Andoh said.
The City of Newberry and Little Mountain have already committed to allow stops in the towns. The stops in Downtown Columbia will include PRISM Healthcare, the State House, SCDOT, state office buildings, USC and downtown office buildings off of Assembly, Sumter and Gervais.
“We are working with S.C. Works and the county, and will also like to encourage those who live in Richland and Lexington Counties to pursue job opportunities up here in Newberry County,” Andoh said.
The route will run five days a week, with no service on the weekends or major holidays, and is geared toward shift times, 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. The route will start in Columbia in the morning, and work its way up to Newberry, then turn around and go back to Columbia and go out of service. In the afternoon, it will once again start in Columbia and go to Newberry, then back to Columbia.
The route will start in Columbia at 6 a.m. and will make it to Newberry around 6:30 a.m. and the afternoon route will make its way to Newberry around 6:30 p.m.
A feature COMET offers commuters is an emergency ride home program, this means if someone from Newberry has an emergency, an illness or a childcare issue for example, COMET will reimburse the commuter up to four trips a year, whether it is an Uber, taxi or Lyft.
Another service COMET offers is a real time tracker, where riders can see, via an app, the bus in real time and know when it will arrive. The bus will also have Wi-Fi, charging ports, padded seats and security cameras. They can also hold two wheelchairs and three bicycles. To start, COMET will utilize a 25 foot cutaway bus for this route, if ridership grows, Andoh said they can graduate the route to a 35 or 40 foot bus.
The fare will be four dollars for a one way. Six dollars for an all day pass, with unlimited access on the COMET system. A seven day pass will be $28, and a 31 day pass will be $80.
“We will have transfers for free for those who want to access other COMET bus routes in our service area,” Andoh said.
When it comes to funding, Andoh said federal funds will cover 50 percent of the operation cost. Richland and Lexington counties will provide the initial matching funds, which is about $88,000, to operate that one round trip. The total cost to provide this service is $103,620.
“We would like to approach the governments of Newberry County to see if they are willing to provide limited financial support to relieve the burden of Richland and Lexington counties. We intend to request five to ten thousand in the upcoming fiscal year,” Andoh said.
COMET will also work with the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce to promote to employers, who they hope will promote the service.
The pilot program will last a little more than a year, May 2019-July 2020. Minimum requirements of the route will include 10 passengers per trip, with a subsidy of five dollars or less per passenger.
Future expansion of the route, more than one round rip, will have to be born by the county or county employers.
